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Calaveras County's largest fire district, Calaveras Consolidated, may have to close one station next year if new revenue is not acquired.
Courtesy photo/Calaveras Consolidated Fire Protection District
As previously reported, rural fire districts in California face growing challenges when it comes to achieving and maintaining adequate staffing levels, as these small districts struggle to provide a living wage.
With the impending fire season, Cal Fire and municipal fire departments have reportedly ramped up their recruitment, offering wages that low-paid volunteers and interns can’t find in Calaveras County’s local districts. This has led to staffing levels depleting at record rates.
A troubling example came this month, when the county’s largest local fire district decided to dip into its financial reserves to hire six seasonal firefighters.
“We didn’t have anybody that wanted to continue to work for $125 a day,” Calaveras Consolidated (Cal Co) Fire Protection District Chief Rich Dickinson said in a press release issued by proponents of an initiative aimed to address the problem.
Measure A, which citizens will vote on in November, proposes a 1% sales tax would pay to staff fire engines at local agencies across the county. According to proponents, the approximately $900,000 a year that Cal Co would receive through Measure A would be enough to keep the engines staffed at the existing stations and also to reopen a station in the Burson area that is now vacant.
Without new revenue, Cal Co may have to close one station next year, Dickinson said.
In recent years, the district has earned money by renting engines and crews to Cal Fire strike teams fighting fires throughout the state. This has allowed for the hiring of six seasonal firefighters, according to district board member Kim Olson. On June 13, the district voted unanimously to approve temporary funding through Dec. 2 to double the number of firefighters on duty 24/7 to a total of four–two each at the district stations in Jenny Lind and Valley Springs.
However, the pace of funding will not be sustainable unless the district acquires new revenue.
“Cal Co isn’t the only fire district losing its trainees,” said Dana Nichols, chairman of the citizen
committee behind Measure A. “For a long time, our young people have been stepping up to volunteer and provide these lifesaving services. But now with the rising cost of living and job opportunities elsewhere, they simply can’t afford to stay here. … Measure A is a way to guarantee adequate fire staffing countywide, and to ensure that at least some of our young people can afford to live and work in the community they love.”
Learn more about Measure A at calaveraslfp.org or call Nichols at (209) 768-9072.
Dakota graduated from Bret Harte in 2013 and went to Davidson College, NC where she earned a bachelor's degree in Arab studies. After spending time studying in the Middle East and Europe, she is happy to be home, writing about the community she loves.
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